Yet still her charms in breathing paint engage;

Her modest cheek shall warm a future age.

56

Beauty, frail flow'r, that ev'ry season fears,

Blooms in thy colours for a thousand years.
Thus Churchill's race shall other hearts surprise,
And other Beauties envy Worsley's eyes;
Each pleasing Blount shall endless smiles bestow,
And soft Belinda's blush for ever glow.

Oh lasting as those Colours may they shine,
Free as thy stroke, yet faultless as thy line;
New graces yearly like thy works display,
Soft without weakness, without glaring gay;
Led by some rule, that guides, but not constrains;
And finish'd more through happiness than pains.

The kindred Arts shall in their praise conspire, One dip the pencil, and one string the lyre. Yet should the Graces all thy figures place, And breathe an air divine on ev'ry face; Yet should the Muses bid my numbers roll Strong as their charms, and gentle as their soul; With Zeuxis' Helen thy Bridgewater vie, And these be sung till Granville's Myra die :

60

65

70

75

NOTES.

Ver. 60. Worsley's eyes;] This was Frances Lady Worsley, Wife of Sir Robert Worsley, Bart. of Appuldercombe, in the Isle of Wight; Mother of Lady Cartaret, Wife of John Lord Carteret, afterward Earl Granville. There is an excellent letter of this Lady to Dr. Swift in his Letters, p. 77.

Ver. 70. One dip the pencil,] The great Michael Angelo Buanoriti did both. See his Poems, printed at Florence, in 4to. 1623; some of which are very elegant, and nearly equal to Petrarch.

Alas! how little from the grave we claim!
Thou but preserv'st a Face, and I a Name.

NOTES.

Ver. 78. a Name.] Pope used to say, that Jervas translated Don Quixote without understanding Spanish. Warburton added a supplement to the preface of this translation, concerning the origin and nature of romances of chivalry; which supplement Pope extols in his letters; but the opinions in it are thoroughly and entirely confuted by Mr. Tyrrwhit, in vol. ii. of Supplemental Observations on Shakspeare, p. 373.

EPISTLE

ΤΟ

MRS. BLOUNT,

WITH THE WORKS OF VOITURE.

In these gay thoughts the Loves and Graces shine, And all the Writer lives in ev'ry line;

His easy heart may happy Nature seem,
Trifles themselves are elegant in him.
Sure to charm all was his peculiar fate,
Who without flatt'ry pleas'd the fair and great;
Still with esteem no less convers'd than read;
With wit well-natur'd, and with books well-bred :
His heart, his mistress and his friend did share,
His time, the Muse, the witty, and the fair.
Thus wisely careless, innocently gay,
Cheerful he play'd the Trifle, Life, away;
Till fate scarce felt his gentle breath supprest,
As smiling Infants sport themselves to rest,
Ev'n rival Wits did Voiture's death deplore,

And the gay mourn'd who never mourn'd before;

5

10

15

NOTES.

Ver. 1. In these gay] The works of Voiture, after having been idolized in France, are now justly sunk into neglect and oblivion.

300

The truest hearts for Voiture heav'd with sighs,
Voiture was wept by all the brightest Eyes:

The Smiles and Loves had died in Voiture's death,
But that for ever in his lines they breathe.

Let the strict life of graver mortals be
A long, exact, and serious Comedy;
In ev'ry scene some moral let it teach,

20

And, if it can, at once both please and preach.
Let mine an innocent gay Farce appear,
And more diverting still than regular,

25

Have Humour, Wit, a native Ease and Grace,
Tho' not too strictly bound to Time and Place:
Critics in Wit, or Life, are hard to please,

Few write to those, and none can live to these. 30 Too much your sex is by their forms confin'd Severe to all, but most to Womankind;

Custom, grown blind with Age, must be your guide; Your pleasure is a vice, but not your pride;

NOTES.

Ver. 19. The Smiles] Alluding to an elegant epitaph on Voi

ture:

"Etrusca Veneres, Camœnæ Iberæ,
Hermes Gallicus, et Latina Siren;
Risus, Deliæ et Dicacitates,
Lusus, Ingenium, Joci, Lepores:
Et quidquid unquam fuit elegantiarum,
Quo Vecturius, hoc jacent sepulcro."

Many curious particulars of his life may be found in the entertaining Miscellanies of Vigneul Marville, vol. ii. p. 409.

Corneille was invited to read his Polyeucte at the Hotel de Rambouillet, where the wits of that time assembled, and where Voiture presided. It was coldly received; and Voiture was sent to tell Corneille in gentle terms, that it was the opinion of his friends that Polyeucte would not succeed. Such judges were the most fashionable wits of France!

35

By nature yielding, stubborn but for fame :
Made Slaves by honour, and made fools by shame.
Marriage may all those petty Tyrants chase,

But sets up one a greater in their place :

Well might you wish for change by those accurst,
But the last Tyrant ever proves the worst.
Still in constraint your suff'ring Sex remains,
Or bound in formal, or in real chains :
Whole years neglected, for some months ador'd,
The fawning Servant turns a haughty Lord.
Ah quit not the free innocence of life,
For the dull glory of a virtuous Wife;
Nor let false Shows, nor empty Titles please:
Aim not at Joy, but rest content with Ease.

40

45

The Gods, to curse Pamela with her pray'rs, Gave the gilt Coach, and dappled Flanders Mares, The shining robes, rich jewels, beds of state, And to complete her bliss, a Fool for Mate. She glares in Balls, front Boxes, and the Ring, A vain, unquiet, glitt'ring, wretched Thing! Pride, Pomp, and State, but reach her outward

part;

She sighs, and is no Dutchess at her heart.

But, Madam, if the fates withstand, and you

51

56

Are destin❜d Hymen's willing Victim too;
Trust not too much your now resistless charms,
Those, Age or Sickness, soon or late, disarms: 60
Good-humour only teaches charms to last,

Still makes new conquests, and maintains the past;
Love rais'd on Beauty, will like that decay,
Our hearts may bear its slender chain a day;